Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, has claimed the princess had nine secret boyfriends, including an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor, but at the time of her death was only in love with dashing Pakistani-born heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.

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Mr Burrell said Diana was not in love with her official boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, even though she was on a date with him the night they died together in a Paris car crash in 1997.

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Diana would never have married Al Fayed, the son of Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed, because he had problems with drink, drugs, money and prostitutes, Mr Burrell told London’s Daily Mirror.

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She felt suffocated by him and feared that he would propose. “I need another marriage like I want a bad rash,” she allegedly told Mr Burrell.

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In an extract from his book, Mr Burrell claims the princess used a racing trap system to grade the nine suitors she had after Prince Charles, including a famous politician, a musician, a sporting legend and a novelist.

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We called it the trap system, as if the men were competitors on a racetrack,” Mr Burrell said.

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He does not name any of the men, but Diana was linked to rugby star Will Carling, art dealer Oliver Hoare, and businessman Gula Lalvani, as well as Al Fayed and Dr Khan, who ended the relationship because it was “too complicated”.